OpenAI announced that the Projects feature of ChatGPT is now officially available to free users, marking an important step forward in the popularization of ChatGPT's features and the enhancement of user experience. The Projects feature was previously limited to paid users, but now free users can also enjoy this powerful AI tool, helping them organize and manage AI conversation content more efficiently.
Projects Feature: From a Paid Privilege to a Shared Resource
The Projects feature of ChatGPT can be seen as an intelligent "workspace," allowing users to create dedicated conversation folders for specific tasks or topics. Users can customize instructions to precisely adjust the response style and content scope of ChatGPT, ensuring that the AI output better meets specific needs. For example, marketing professionals can create a Project focused on brand copywriting, while programmers can set up a workspace for code debugging. This flexibility and targeting make Projects an ideal choice for users who need to manage complex tasks over a long period.
In this update, OpenAI not only made the Projects feature available to free users, but also added several new practical features. Free users can now upload up to 5 files per Project, while Plus users and Pro users can upload 25 and 40 files respectively. Additionally, users can customize the color and icon for their Project, further enhancing the personalized experience. More importantly, the newly added "Project-only memory" feature allows users to limit the AI to referencing only the conversations and files within the Project, enhancing data privacy and task focus.
New Opportunities for Free Users
For over 80% of ChatGPT's free users, the availability of the Projects feature is undoubtedly a major benefit. Free users can now manage long-term tasks more efficiently by creating Projects, such as organizing study notes, planning creative writing, or analyzing research data. Compared to the traditional conversation mode, the structured management of Projects allows users to avoid repeatedly uploading files or re-explaining their needs, greatly improving work efficiency.
OpenAI's move is seen as a further deepening of the "freemium" model. By opening advanced features to free users, OpenAI aims to attract more users to experience the power of ChatGPT, while encouraging some users to upgrade to paid plans to unlock higher file upload limits and additional features. AIbase analysis suggests that this strategy not only expands the user base of ChatGPT, but could also promote the broader application of AI tools in education, creativity, and business fields.
Privacy and Control: Core Upgrades in User Experience
As data privacy becomes increasingly important, OpenAI has also enhanced users' control over their data in the updates to the Projects feature. Users can choose the "Project-only memory" mode, ensuring that ChatGPT references only the information within the current Project, without cross-project or referencing other conversation content. This feature is particularly important for handling sensitive information or tasks requiring high focus. Additionally, OpenAI clearly stated that for free users, Plus users, and Pro users, if the "Improve the Model for Everyone" setting is not enabled, data in Projects will not be used for model training, further safeguarding user privacy.
Notably, OpenAI continues to optimize the Projects feature, including plans to fully support it on iOS platforms and potentially integrating more advanced tools, such as in-depth research and voice interaction modes in the future. These updates will further enhance ChatGPT's performance in complex tasks, providing users with a smarter and more convenient experience.
